> And yet Australians are already richer than the French at the median, along with having a far higher GDP per capita. I agree with your main point, caveat tha

> And yet Australians are already richer than the French at the median, along with having a far higher GDP per capita. I agree with your main point, caveat that I don't know anything about the current state of French science because I don't know any French. With this aside though, Australia has an order of magnitude more land than France, and half as many people, so individual Australians should have an absurd amount of raw resource available to them. In a sense, Australia should have a GDP per capita 20x France's purely on raw resources. Comparing material wealth and academic success isn't really fair. Academics depends on small communities, and is a highly cultural endeavor. Wealth depends on resources and stability, which is less so.